and over the wine allowed them by Caesar they told each other the hideous experiences of the day, which even those who had grown rich by it could not think of without disgust.  Gold and silver cups, the plunder of the city, circulated round those camp-fires and the juice of the vine was poured into them out of jugs of precious metal.  Tongues were wagging fast, for, though there was indeed but one opinion as to what had been done, there were mercenaries enough and ambitious pretenders who could dare to defend it.  Every word might reach the sovereign’s ears, and the day might bring promotion as well as gold and booty.  Even the calmest were still in some excitement over the massacre they had helped in; the plunder was discussed, and barter and exchange were eagerly carried on.

As Caracalla passed the balcony he stepped out for a moment, followed by the lamp-bearers, to thank his faithful warriors for the valor and obedience they had shown this day.  The traitorous Alexandrians had now met their deserts.  The greater the plunder his dear brethren in arms could win, the better he would be pleased.  This speech was hailed with a shout of glee drowning his words; but Caracalla had heard his dearly bought troops cheer him with greater zeal and vigor.  There were here whole groups of men who did not join at all, or hardly opened their mouths.  And his ear was sharp.

What cause could they have for dissatisfaction after such splendid booty, although they did not yet know that a war with the Parthians was in prospect?

He must know; but not to-day.  They were to be depended on, he felt sure, for they were those to whom he was most liberal, and he had taken care that there should be no one in the empire whose means equaled his own.  But that they should be so lukewarm annoyed him.  To-day, of all days, an enthusiastic roar of acclamations would have been peculiarly gratifying.  They ought to have known it; and he went to his bedroom in silent anger.  There his freedman Epagathos was waiting for him, with Adventus and his learned Indian body slave Arjuna.  The Indian never spoke unless he was spoken to, and the two others took good care not to address their lord.  So silence reigned in the spacious room while the Indian undressed Caracalla.  Caesar was wont to say that this man’s hands were matchless for lightness and delicacy of touch, but to-day they trembled as he lifted the laurel wreath from Caesar’s head and unbuckled the padded breast plate.  The events of the day had shaken this man’s soul to the foundations.  In his Eastern home he had been taught from his infancy to respect life even in beasts, living exclusively on vegetables, and holding all blood in abhorrence.  He now felt the deepest loathing of all about him; and a passionate longing for the peaceful and pure home among sages, from which he had been snatched as a boy, came over him with increasing vehemence.  There was nothing here but what it defiled him to handle, and his fingers shrank involuntarily from their task, as duty compelled him to touch the limbs of a man who, to his fancy, was dripping with human blood, and who was as much accursed by gods and men as though he were a leper.